


Family

by oOAchilliaOo



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oOAchilliaOo/pseuds/oOAchilliaOo
Summary: As Elissa fights her second dragon in two months and continues to suffer Alistair and Morrigan’s constant bickering she comes to realise there’s something rather special about their little group.
Relationships: Alistair/Female Cousland (Dragon Age), Alistair/Female Warden (Dragon Age)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	Family

How… _how_ was she fighting her second dragon in less than two months?

Perhaps she would have been better off striking a deal with Flemeth. Lying to Morrigan about what she’d done and just taking the offered grimoire.

But, then again, for all her… _prickliness_ , Morrigan had served them well. Despite her faults, Elissa had come to like her, to depend on her, even. Lying to her just didn’t sit right.

But then, as Alistair had pointed out, it was Flemeth who had saved them from certain death at the tower of Ishal. Technically, she owed Flemeth her life, Alistair’s too.

But then, she owed Morrigan her life several times over and they _needed_ her.

But then, someone who would destroy her own daughter’s soul and use her body wasn’t exactly a _nice_ person… witch… being?And Morrigan hadn’t actually done anything heinous in the entire time they’d been travelling together.

(Though she was certain Alistair would probably disagree with that.)

It was all rather… confusing.

“Look out!”

Alistair’s panicked yell had her looking up just in time to see the massive claws headed her way. She ducked, rolling under the dragon’s foreleg and bringing her new blade, Starfang, to bear against its underside. The dragon roared, thrashing, and she caught a glimpse of its sharp white teeth as it tried to use its long neck to snap at her.

Luckily, she was quicker and smaller and managed to duck out of the way in time, heading further under the belly of the beast.

“Oh no, you don’t,” she heard Alistair growl through gritted teeth and then the dragon’s head was gone and another great roar echoed through the wilds.

She used the opportunity to slice at its underbelly with both sword and dagger before ducking out from between its limbs somehow avoiding both claws and tail.

When she emerged, it was to see Alistair sitting astride the dragon’s neck plunging his blade into its side.

The dragon growled, using its long-muscled neck to toss him into the air as if he weighed no more than a feather. Her heart nearly stopped as its massive jaws came within inches of him, but as he turned, he caught hold of its neck once more and stabbed his sword up to the hilt in its flesh.

The dragon roared, faltered and finally fell, crashing into the ground and sending Alistair sprawling.

“Wynne,” she screamed, nodding towards him before turning to make sure that the creature was finally and fully dead. She was all too aware that while it might _look_ like a dragon, it had once been the infamous witch of the wilds, and who knew now many tricks _she_ had up her sleeve?

When she looked back towards Alistair, satisfied as well as she could be that it was, in fact, dead, it was to see him surveying the corpse with a horrified expression on his face.

“What? What is it? Are you hurt?” she asked, sheathing her blades and running her eyes over him to find the source of his injury even though she knew Wynne had likely already done so.

“No… I’m… I’m fine.” His eyes didn’t move from the corpse. “Just… Just please don’t tell Morrigan that _I_ killed her? Please?”

Relieved, Elissa rolled her eyes.

“Whyever not? Morrigan did _ask_ us to kill her.”

“That’s exactly the problem.” He turned his gaze from the dragon back to her, though his expression was no less horrified. “I can’t have done Morrigan a _favour.”_

“Well, you did.” She headed towards the hut that had been Morrigan’s childhood home. “And I think she should know. So she can thank you.”

“You’re kidding right? Tell me you’re kidding. I don’t want to be thanked by _her._ What if she feels she has to do _me_ a favour in return? It could get… messy.”

Elissa blinked, curious but equally trepidatious.. “Why? What would you ask her to do?”

“Oh, something suitably disgusting,” Alistair assured her as she pushed open the door to the hut, thumbing the key she’d taken from the dragon’s corpse. “Wash my socks maybe? Clean my smalls?”

Elissa snorted, imaging the look on Morrigan’s face if she were asked to clean Alistair’s smalls, even in return for such a grand ‘favour’ as killing her mother.

“Maybe it’s best if she _doesn’t_ know it was you,” she conceded as she retrieved Flemeth’s true grimoire from the locked chest.

“Urgh. _That_ looks like a fascinating read,” he drawled as she drew it out.

He wasn’t wrong. It was a rather… unpleasant looking volume. The cover was black and embossed with hideous looking imagery, the pages yellowed and aged. She wouldn’t like to guess at how old it was, or what manner of dark magic it contained.

“Come on.” She stuffed the book into her pack. “Let’s just get back to camp.”

When they returned, she went straight to Morrigan, both in order to reassure her that they’d done as she’d asked, and to hand over the grimoire.

Moments later, when she stumbled back across the camp to join the others by the fire it was her turn to be utterly stunned.

“What?” Alistair asked her around a mouthful of food. “What is it?”

“Morrigan,” she said slowly, taking a seat beside him. “Morrigan just called me her _friend_.”

Alistair gaped at her as, behind him, she heard Zevran start to cackle.

“I am truly, deeply sorry.”

She punched him in the arm.

This was, all things considered, an incredibly weird year. Never would she ever have anticipated the turn her life had taken. If her father could see her, half-covered in mud, unkempt hair tied back, wearing armour more days than she didn’t, she was fairly certain he’d have had a heart attack.

It had taken a long time for her to be able to think of her father and mother without crying. She was sure that she would always miss them and she would certainly never forget them but… looking around the camp, her new family was a more than fair substitute.

Collection of oddities though they were.

Some days she couldn’t believe that the fate of the entire world had fallen to them. Her and her partner in crime, unexpected best friend and… perhaps more. Not that she was quite willing to admit that, even to herself yet, but she liked being with him. She appreciated his jokes and the way he’d somehow made the entire situation so much more bearable; even _enjoyable_ at times.

Except when he was bickering with Morrigan, of course. Not that she thought he meant it maliciously; it was honestly more akin to a sibling rivalry. She and Fergus had certainly had worse arguments when they were younger. More violent ones, too.

She just didn’t think _Morrigan_ knew that.

Not that anyone _else_ was any better, to be honest, with Zevran constantly hounding Wynne, and Leliana and Morrigan too, come to think of it. Oghren was… well, Oghren. She was fairly convinced that Shale only just _barely_ tolerated any of them, and Wynne was scolding more often than not.

And yet..

They were a family.

Unequivocally so.

Despite all the teasing and the arguments and bickering over Alistair’s _truly_ terrible cooking, they cared about each other. Even though they hadn’t been travelling together for very long, she knew there was nothing any of them wouldn’t do for each other.

Honestly a part of her would be sad when this was all over and they would no longer be travelling together. It scared her just a little bit. If her drastic change in circumstances had taught her anything, it was that she was far more adaptable than she had ever supposed.

She was sure she could handle whatever the future held. She just… didn’t want to have to handle it without her new family.

Particularly without _him._


End file.
